Viburnum trilobum

I haven't grown it from seed myself, but I can tell you what the god of seed germination, Dr. Norm Deno, says in his First Supplement to the Second Edition of Seed Germination Theory and Practice about germinating V. trilobum.

Paraphrasing from Page 85:
His seeds were first cleaned and washed in water with three rinses daily for 7 days.  Then, he reports 95% germination in 5-8 weeks at 70 degrees F and dark conditions (i.e. seeds planted in moist medium and kept in the dark at room temperature).  He also tried a 3 month cold period (40 deg F), followed by 70 deg F in the dark, and had 100% germination in 9-14 weeks.  However, germination consisted of forming a radicle, only.  The seedlings then needed 3 months at 40 deg F and a return to 70 deg F in order to form a stem and leaves (it has a two-step germination).

Hope that is helpful, and all the best with it. 

To be clear, initial germination consisting of the radicle (root) only occurred in both of his methods.

And that conforms with Michael Dirr's suggestion of 4 months warm stratification (when the root emerges), followed by 3 months cold (after which a shoot will emerge).  Cleaned seed is important, but Dirr does not mention a need to multiple rinsing.  Probably, the longer warm period (4 months) compensates.

And welcome to the forum, MSmith!

Good luck with the seed.  It certainly more difficult than some.

Is V. trilobum trickier to germinate than other viburnums? I have tried different species (not this one) and some seed always germinate the first spring and other the same fall or next spring. I use a coldframe or cold greenhouse.

Thank you for the advice.  I am also going to treat the seeds like I do Magnolia seeds.  It appears that the washing is very important as with Magnolia.  With them I soak them overnight in a mild detergent solution, a tip given to me by a well known local grower.  This improves both the rate and speed of germination.Seems like it might be a good idea with these too. I hope I can get some success with your advice as i would like to plant a long hedge of them.

I have grown this Viburnum from seed, my plants are now more than five years old.  As I remember, I collected some seeds from the plant in late winter, they were still dangling there, and soaked them in a glass of water with a drop of dish soap, changing it every day or two, washing away the pericarp.  The seeds were sown in late winter and did not germinate until the spring a year later.  I am now trying Viburnum acerifolium the same way -no luck yet.

At the Botanical garden where I work, we collected fruit of V. nudum var. cassinoides in the fall, washed the pulp then sowed them at 70 F immediately.....they sprouted like grass! Apparently the germination inhibitors did not get a chance to kick in if treated this way. Only drawback is they want to grow all winter and without a greenhouse, that can be tricky.

Boland wrote:

At the Botanical garden where I work, we collected fruit of V. nudum var. cassinoides in the fall, washed the pulp then sowed them at 70 F immediately.....they sprouted like grass! Apparently the germination inhibitors did not get a chance to kick in if treated this way. Only drawback is they want to grow all winter and without a greenhouse, that can be tricky.

Todd, could you handle the seed as done for Magnolia seed?  Same thing, in the fall harvest the red-orange berries, soak them in a container of water for a week (change water every now and then otherwise it gets "funky"), hand squish/squeeze each one to get the black "pit" (seed), rinse the seeds, then dry them on paper towels, store in some milled sphagnum peat moss (just a hint of moisture) in a sealed plastic zip-lock bag, put them in the vegetable crisper in the refrigerator for the whole winter.  Then after danger of frost, sow and they germinate like weeds in 1-2 weeks.  That way, no carrying over seedlings over the winter.  I had a friend collect and send me some Franklinia seed, which reminds me that I must take them out of my refrigerator and sow them soon.

I am not sure this is appropriate, but Viburnum are very easily propagated by cuttings in late may or early June.  So if you have access to a plant, just snip of some semi-hardwood cuttings and put them in sand or some other medium and watch the magic.

Mark,  I have done just as you described for Magnolia on M. sieboldii and M. salcifolia and you are right, they germinate freely.  I'll try that with the Viburnum to see if that will 'skip' the extra year needed for them to germinate.